Chapter 4: Tom
Star and Marco silently sat in their room, enjoying the quiet atmosphere. Marco's uncle was out on a business trip and his aunt was at the store, meaning they had the place to themselves.
"Hey, Marco?" Star said.
"Yeah, Star?"
Star sat on the mattress, not saying anything for a few seconds. "Please don't think of killing yourself again." She said finally.
Marco hesitated for a moment. "Okay. I'll… I'll try."
The teens fell back into silence for a short while. The silence was broken again shortly after, however, and not because of either of the two. It was actually Star's pocket mirror, the Mewnian equivalent of a cellphone, ringing from in her suitcase. She opened up her suitcase and grabbed her mirror, reading the caller ID. When she did, her face paled slightly as she read 'Queen Moon' before answering.
"Y-yes, mother?" She said.
"Star Butterfly, how are you?" Moon said.
"Oh, I'm terrible, as always; not that you care." Star replied. "But if you must know, I am actually doing less terrible than usual."
"Hm. Yes, well, the reason I'm calling is to inform you that Prince Thomas will be coming by shortly to court you… again." Moon said, disregarding Star's earlier statement.
"NO!" Star shrieked.
"Yes." Moon said sternly. "You are approaching that age where you must have a suitable king picked out before you will eventually ascend to the throne."
"No! Not Tom! Please! Anybody but Tom!" Star begged.
"Yes, Tom. I am aware you two have dated in the past. And he is already on his way, so there will be no stopping it." Moon informed. "And remember, what's most important is that you act like the princess you should be. Goodbye." Moon hung up, leaving Star in stunned silence.
"Hey, Star?" Marco began. "Who's Tom?"
Star was silent for a moment before responding. "He's… my ex." She said. "He…"
A whooshing sound from outside caught their attention, and they looked out the window and saw a pillar of flames rising from the ground. After the flames disappeared, a demon stood there, looking around briefly before spotting Star in the window and smirking. He rose up using his fire magic and hovered in front of the window.
"Hey, Starship." Tom said.
Both Star and Marco backed away from the window, but Tom wasn't having any of that. He opened the window and stepped inside of the room, slowly walking towards Star as she backed away in fear.
"Hey now, don't be like that." Tom said. "Anyway, I'm here to take you to the Blood Moon Ball."
"No! I don't want to go! You can't make me!" Star shouted. "Stay back!"
Tom simply gave an unimpressed look, snapping his fingers. Suddenly, all three of them were wearing formal wear. Tom was wearing a simple white tuxedo, Marco was wearing a semi-fancy black suit with some decorations, and Star was wearing a fancy pink dress with matching gloves and boots.
"Oops, wrong spell." Tom shrugged. He snapped his fingers again, and Star's eyes glazed over. "Now, how about that ball?"
Marco's eyes widened when Star gave her answer. "Y…e…s…"
"That's more like it." Tom said.
"Hey, wait! What are you doing to Star?!" Marco exclaimed. Tom ignored him, and summoned a carriage that him and Star boarded onto. Marco tried to stop him, but Tom snapped his fingers again and Marco suddenly found himself being forced to the other side of the room, giving Tom enough time to leave. "Star!"
As the carriage disappeared into the ground, Marco found himself left alone in his room now, as Tom had taken Star with him to who knows where.
Suddenly, Star's pocket mirror began ringing again, lying on the floor where Star had dropped it. Marco picked it up and answered.
"Uh, hello?"
"Yo, what up, B-Fl… you're not Star." A floating unicorn head said on the other side of the mirror. "Alright turd, where's Star at?"
"A guy named Tom came and put some kind of spell on her and her eyes went all empty and he took her to a Blood Moon Ball thing and I'm really worried about her!" Marco said all in one breath.
"Okay, that's not good."
"What do we do, unicorn head?" Marco asked.
"First of all, it's Pony Head, not unicorn head. And second, we're gonna go save her." Pony Head hung up suddenly, much to Marco's confusion. Shortly after, a portal opened up suddenly in his room, startling him. Pony Head came out of the portal with a pair of scissors in her mouth. "Move it or lose it, turd." Marco stepped through the portal, and immediately noticed the slight spike in temperature.
"Where are we?" Marco wondered.
"Some kinda red moon ball or whatever." Pony Head answered apathetically. "They say the moonlight will select two lucky people, binding their souls together, yadda yadda. A whole bunch-a nonsense, if you ask me."
Marco thought about this for a moment. "We've gotta find Star!" He said. "If that's true, Tom might be planning to get bound to Star!"
Meanwhile, somewhere in the crowd, Tom and Star were in line for photos. The spell still had its effect on her, and Tom was acting as though nothing was happening. The couple in front of them were drenched in unicorn blood as the picture was taken. Coincidentally, Pony Head saw them right at that time and was disgusted by the open display of unicorn blood being dumped on couples.
"That's disturbing." Pony Head said. Marco also managed to spot them at that time.
"Star!" Marco said.
Upon hearing her name, Star turned her head and began slowly walking towards them, to their alarm, as Tom was right there. Tom looked at Star, and Marco grew nervous.
Thankfully, he misunderstood the reason Star was leaving the line for the photos. "Hey, c'mon Starship, don't you want a picture?" He said. Star, in her zombie-like state, seemed to ignore him. "I guess not."
"Attention, everyone. It is now that time of the ball." A voice said over the microphone. "In a few moments, the blood moon will shine its light down on two lucky people, and their souls will be bound together for eternity in its ruby light." A piece of music began to play, and Tom growled.
"Ugh; that's the wrong music!" He said. "I need to go change that. I just hope the spell doesn't wear off before I get back." Tom left Star alone for a moment, and Marco seized the opportunity. He quickly rushed forward and grabbed Star's hand, pulling her away from Tom.
"Star! Star, can you hear me?" Marco whispered, trying not to attract the attention of Tom. "Star, wake up!"
Star's eyes glowed softly for a second before they returned to normal, and she frantically darted her eyes around. "No! I won't be your puppet, Tom!" She said frantically, before her eyes settled on Marco. "Marco?"
"Star!"
"Marco! Oh, thank goodness." Star said, wrapping her arms around Marco. "Where are we?"
"We need to get out of here before Tom comes back." Marco said. Suddenly, a red spotlight shone down on the two, much to their surprise. A waltz began to play, and they found themselves dancing, unable to stop; not that they wanted to.
For a moment, Star and Marco just danced under the spotlight, content with everything at the moment, not saying anything. They stared into each other's eyes, enjoying the company of each other as they danced. Marco could feel his heart fluttering at how breathtaking Star looked in the light, feeling happier than he had ever been in his life. He would have been content to just dance with Star forever under the red spotlight.
Star could also feel her cheeks warming up as she stared into Marco's eyes, as the surroundings faded away until it was just the two of them, dancing together. Staring into Marco's eyes, Star felt like she was the happiest she had been out of most of her life.
They didn't even notice as the red spotlight closed after a short while, as they were still dancing, just enjoying the moment they had together. Marco loved that Star was enjoying the dance so much, as the large smile on her face showed she was clearly having a great time.
Suddenly, the broken gray hearts on her cheeks became tinted with a slight amount of pink, and they connected together so that instead of two broken halves of a heart on each cheek, it was now one single heart with a crack running about four fifths of the way down. He also noticed that her dull blue eyes were slightly more colorful now, appearing to be more of a sky blue instead of a pale blue.
The moment didn't last long, however, as their dance was interrupted. Tom harshly shoved Marco away from Star, and he slid across the floor, glaring at Marco menacingly as his eyes glowed red.
"You… you're DEAD!" Tom shouted. Fire erupted throughout the room, scaring several people. Tom rose up in the air using fire as he yelled, enraged, before blasting fire directly at Marco, who barely dodged it as he rolled out of the way. Star panicked as she tried to use her wand, only to realize she had left it at Marco's room.
"Star, we need to get out of here!" Marco shouted.
"I've got your back, B-Fly!" Pony Head shouted, floating over to the teens and opening a portal with her scissors. Without thinking, the three of them jumped through the portal and ended up in Echo Creek Park while Pony Head quickly closed the portal before Tom could chase them through.
Marco breathed a sigh of relief. "Man. That was a close one, huh?" He said.
Unamused, Pony Head turned to him and pointed her horn at him. "I would be poking holes in your face right now if you weren't so clearly important to my bestie." She said. "I saw how happy she was while you two danced and how her hearts went part of the way back to normal. But you had better explain yourself, Earth turd! If you were there when Tom took Star, why didn't you fight back?"
"Uh, I-I uh, b-but I…"
"It's not his fault." Star interrupted. "W-while Tom had me under his spell, I could still see and hear everything. Marco tried to fight back and stop Tom, but Tom used magic against him, and I'm pretty sure humans don't have any magic to fight back with."
Pony Head looked between Marco and Star a couple times. "Alright turd, you're off the hook for now, but only because Star cares about you and you look weak enough for Star's defense to be believable. But next time, you had better put up more of a fight, or call me to help in the fight. Got it?"
"Y-yeah, yeah, I got it." Marco said, slightly afraid of what she would do to him if he gave the wrong answer.
"Good." Pony Head said, satisfied with his answer. Suddenly, a ringing sound was heard from Pony Head, and she held out her pocket mirror with her tongue and answered. "Hello?"
"Darling, where are you at? You're supposed to be helping babysitting your sisters." King Pony Head said from the mirror.
"I'll be there in a sec." Pony Head replied, before hanging up. "Listen, sorry B-Fly, but I gotta get going." She said, using her dimensional scissors and returning back to her home.
A short moment of silence lasted between the two remaining friends for a moment. "So, uh… your hearts are… different." Marco said awkwardly.
Star pulled out a small mirror, looking at her reflection for a bit and smiling softly. "Marco… this is a very good thing."
"What does it mean?" Marco asked.
"I… I don't know. But it's definitely a good thing." Star replied.
The teens suddenly heard a ripping sound in front of them, and they stared in shock and horror as a portal opened up and none other than Tom stepped out of it, staring at Marco with rage.
"You're still on the death toll, kid!" Tom shouted. Marco ran away from him, fearing for his life, and running towards the nearby police station in the hopes that they might be able to help him. Tom chased after Marco with the intent to kill, and Star also chased after Marco out of fear for his safety. Right as Marco got to the street, Tom had caught up with him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifting him up as Star watched fearfully.
"No! Don't hurt him!" Star shouted, finally catching up herself and trying to get Marco away from Tom. However, he just pushed Star aside harshly, causing her to scrape her knee on the sidewalk.
"Star!" Marco shouted.
Tom looked down the street and saw a large semi truck driving towards them, and smirked. "Say goodbye, human!" Tom said, harshly throwing Marco out into the street in front of the semi truck.
"Marco!" Star shouted, running out into the street and tackling Marco out of the way as they both narrowly avoided being run over by the semi truck at 40 mph, resting on the sidewalk on the other side of the road.
"No!" Tom growled. "The boy was supposed to be killed!" Suddenly, Tom felt something latched onto his wrists, and looked back to see a police officer handcuffing him. "Hey! Release me, human!" Tom growled.
"I don't think so, purple boy." The officer said. "You are being charged with assault and attempted murder. You have the right to remain silent."
"You're gonna pay for this, human!" Tom said, charging some fire magic to his hands. The officer simply took out his taser and tased him, dispelling the magic and causing him to fall to the ground limp as the officer finished handcuffing him.
"Don't worry Marco, I've got you." Star said softly, embracing Marco as he was shaking and crying. "I've got you."
'Just look at how pathetic you are.' The voices in Marco's head were back again, refusing to leave him alone. 'Your friend just risked her life to save you. What if she got hurt because of you?'
'No… please…'
'And just look at you now. Letting your anxiety attack show through just so you can get some sympathy from your friend.' 'You're selfish, Diaz. You're just wasting her time.'
Meanwhile, outside of Marco's mind, Star's concern for the boy continued to grow as he had an anxiety attack right in her arms. She really didn't know what to do. This was the worst anxiety attack he's had, and it only seemed to be getting worse, despite her best attempts at comforting him. His tears gradually began soaking into her dress, and the shaking was starting to get more violent.
"Marco, can you hear me?! Please say something!" Star said, starting to feel her own eyes moisten with tears. "What do I do?"
"Hey, miss. You want to help your friend here, right?" Star turned and saw the officer who arrested Tom standing over them.
"How do I stop his anxiety attack?" Star asked fretfully.
"Well, there is one way I know of." The officer said. "Kiss him."
Star blushed. "W-what?"
"Kiss him." He repeated. "It's either that or watch him suffer and wait for it to stop."
Star was still blushing, but as she looked back at Marco, still crying and shaking, she knew what her decision was.
Throwing caution to the wind, Star brought Marco up and pulled him into a kiss.
